Taylor Swift’s folklore has been in the world for a year now, and to celebrate she shared the “original version” of the album’s bonus track “The Lakes.”
“It’s been one year since we escaped the real world together and imagined ourselves someplace simpler. With tall tall trees and salt air. Where you’re allowed to wear lace nightgowns that make you look like a Victorian ghost every day & no one will side eye you cause no one is around. It’s just you and your imaginary cabin and the stories you make up to pass the time,” Swift wrote on Instagram. “To say thank you for all you have done to make this album what it was, I wanted to give you the original version of The Lakes. Happy 1 year anniversary to Rebekah, Betty, Inez, James, Augustine, and the lives we all created around them. Happy Anniversary, folklore.”
The alternate version of “The Lakes” is much more orchestral than what made it on the album. Producer Jack Antonoff explained its evolution during an interview with Billboard. “On one of my favorite songs on Folklore, ‘The Lakes,’ there was this big orchestral version, and Taylor was like, ‘Eh, make it small.’ I had gotten lost in the string arrangements and all this stuff, and I took everything out,” he recalled. “I was just like, ‘Oh, my God!’ We were not together because that record was made [remotely], but I remember being in the studio alone like, ‘Holy shit, this is so perfect.’”
Listen to “The Lakes (Original Version)” below and read our review of folklore here.